Our First New Year's
by thesaiyanjedi
Summary: It's New Year's Eve in Konoha and Naruto is looking to take his girlfriend out on a date. How well with the couples first New Year's Eve together turn out? NaruSaku. A prequel to "Shinachiku's First Adventure."


Hey everybody, thesaiyanjedi here with another one shot story in honor of New Year's Eve!

I know what you're all thinking and I'm sorry for being gone for so long. Things in my life have been a bit tense lately and, honestly, I'd been having a bit of a writer's block. I regret being away for so long, but I wanted to quickly hammer something out for the holiday.

This story is set in the first year of Naruto and Sakura's relationship, and honestly there's not a whole lot to it other than getting to see them out on a date for New Year's. But either way, I hope you all enjoy reading it.

With that said, lets get to reading!

* * *

It was New Year's Eve in Konohagakure. The streets of the village were filled with hustle and bustle, the lights were bright, and the villagers were looking forward to the first day of the new year after the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War.

One of the people looking forward to this day was a young Chūnin with bright blonde hair and sapphire eyes, wearing an iconic orange jacket and with six whisker-like markings adorning his face. He was the village hero, the savoir of the ninja world. His name: Uzumaki Naruto.

But for the moment, the young man was walking through the village he called home in desperation, trying to find the woman he loved in the growing crowd that was gathering outside the Academy.

'Where is she? Its our first New Year's together and I can't find her anywhere!'

It was true. This was the end of the first year he and Sakura have been together. Things were going well for the two of them, but they were still very early into their relationship. He was hoping to find her tonight to so that the two of them could go out on a New Year's date, maybe be done with dinner in time for the big countdown to midnight.

"Sakura!" he called out, cupping his hands over his mouth to create an artificial amplifier. "SAKURA!"

"Hey! Not so loud jerk!" a rude villager shouted in irritation.

"Gomen!" Naruto said while scratching his head.

The blonde then managed to find a couple of familiar faces. They belonged to a black haired male with pale white skin and an attractive young women with long, flowing blonde hair.

"Hey Sai! Ino!"

The couple turned in the direction of the voice, where they were greeted by an old friend.

"Oh hello Naruto," Sai said as politely as he could.

"Naruto!" Ino said much louder while waving her arm in the air to call him over to them.

The blonde did come over to them, making his way through the crowd to get to his old friends. "Hey you guys! Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year Naruto," Sai said back. "You have any plans for the evening?"

"Well, kind of. I'm trying to find Sakura so that maybe we can go out to dinner tonight. Have you seen her?"

"Oh!" Ino gasped. "No Naruto I'm sorry, we haven't seen her. She might still be at the hospital getting the last of her work done." She noticed the disappointed look on the boy's face. "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be out tonight."

"Thanks."

"So Naruto," Sai spoke again, "where are you going to be taking Sakura out to eat tonight?"

" _Please_ don't say you're going to Ichiraku's again!" Ino demanded.

A vein appeared on the back of his head as the blonde's eyebrow twitched. "NO! For you're information I was planning on taking her out to that new sushi place that opened up a few blocks away from here."

"Ah yes," Sai noted. "I recall that establishment, they say they serve good food there."

"Yeah!" Ino agreed. "I'm sure Forehead would love that!"

"Watch your mouth Ino-pig!"

The three friends all turned around to find the source of the voice was coming from none other than the very woman that Naruto had been looking for. The beautiful angel with bubble gum hair and emerald eyes and with a broad, charming forehead emblazoned with a violet seal shaped like a small diamond. A woman who could both charm him with her sweetness and her brains, yet at the same time scare him with her temper and her strength. In other words, the perfect woman for a courageous, hyperactive nitwit like himself. She was wearing a red jacket to keep her warm in the cold winter weather.

"SAKURA!" Naruto shouted in joy.

"Naruto!" Sakura was equally as excited to see her new boyfriend. So much so that she actually ran up to him so they could embrace each other in a romantic hug.

"I was looking everywhere for you," he confessed.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I was hoping that if you weren't busy then the two of us could go get some dinner tonight before the big countdown."

"Aw!" Sakura felt so happy at his thoughtfulness. Seriously, who knew that this boy, this ignorant, dimwitted, clueless boy she had known and fought beside for so long could prove to be such a romantic.

"So...Is that a yes?"

Sakura giggled, "Of course its a yes silly!"

"Aw. Isn't that cute?"

The couple turned their heads to see Ino standing there making fun of them. A vein appeared on Sakura's forehead as her own eyebrow twitched. "Watch it Ino!"

"Oh cut it out Sakura, I was just kidding!"

Sakura, famous for her frequent mood swings, seemed to get over her annoyance just as soon as it had begun. "I know."

Naruto face faulted at the scene. 'Maybe there are some things about women that I'll _never_ understand...'

"So," Sakura turned back to her boyfriend of a few months, "where are we going out to dinner?"

"I was thinking that new sushi place a few blocks from here."

Sakura eyes lit up. "Oh! You mean Eiichir-oda's? I've been wanting to try that place out!"

"Great! So its a date?"

Sakura put on a smug smirk as she wrapped her arms around the handsome jinchūriki's neck. "Its a date." She then leaned in a kissed him right on the lips, not caring that her best friend and her boyfriend were still looking at them.

"Well," Sai said with a slight smile, "they definitely seem to be getting along."

The former Root ninja was then taken by surprise when his girlfriend suddenly cupped his chin in her hand and pulled him towards her to face him. "Ino?"

"Sakura's not the only girl here who wants some sugar you know."

He didn't get to say anything more before the platinum blonde vixen claimed his pale lips in a sexy kiss. Sai, still relatively new to being in this kind of a relationship, took a moment to relax himself into the kiss, but once he did he took great pleasure in it.

By the time the two of them broke apart. the other couple that had been standing in their presence was already gone...

* * *

Naruto walked side by side holding hands with his girlfriend, who was walking with a smile across her pretty face. He did not realize the he was smiling at her until she looked at him in interest.

"What is it?"

"Oh! Nothing!" he said blushing. "Just thinking about how lucky I am to be dating you."

Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes at his corniness. "You can be so silly some times, you know that?"

"Sure I do, you've been telling me that for years." That joke got him a punch in the arm. "OW!"

"Be careful what you say next time."

"Yes dear..."

Anyway, despite that awkward moment, the rest of their walk went pretty smoothly as they made it to the last block where the restaurant was.

"Say," Naruto spoke up, "you don't suppose it was rude of us to just ditch Sai and Ino back there, do you?"

"Nah!" Sakura brushed off. "They clearly were in the mood for some private time."

Naruto then got bold and wrapped him arm around her shoulder. "Well then lets hurry up and get to the restaurant for our own private time."

Sakura shook her head at her boyfriend's cheesiness. "Jeez you're hopeless." Despite that, she happily leaned in as they briefly stopped in the street for a romantic kiss...

...By the time they made it to the restaurant, they noticed a line was outside.

"Oh _perfect_..." Naruto complained.

"Didn't you get us a reservation?"

"This place doesn't take reservations. Its first come, first served."

Now it was Sakura's turn to complain. "Oh _perfect_..."

Naruto took her hand again. "Hey," he said, "maybe this was a bad idea? We can always try somewhere else—"

"No, no its alright. We might as well give them some time to see if the line gets any shorter."

He smiled, "Alright, if you're sure."

"I'm sure."

And so they spoke with a waiter inside and gave their names. The waiter told them that it was going to be a wait until they had a place available for them either at a table or at the sushi bar. And so they waited outside for a solid forty five minutes! That was the bad news; the good news was that the line did move fast and guests were being served quick and leaving with smiles on their faces. Seeing this, the couple thought to themselves in like mind: 'Wow. Maybe we'll both get inside before midnight after all.'

Naruto could tell that Sakura was feeling a bit cold, even with her jacket on, so he tried offering her his own jacket as well. "Here."

"No Naruto, you keep it. I'll be fine."

"Go on, take it." He didn't give her the chance to protest before he already placed the jacked on top of her shoulders.

Gripping the jacket, she turned to him and asked "Aren't _you_ going to be cold?"

"No its alright; I'm tough enough to handle it."

Sakura raised an eyebrow with a annoyed expression. "And you assume that I'm _not_?"

"Ah! No! No, no, of course not Sakura! I just meant—"

"Oh calm down; I was just teasing."

Naruto pouted. "That's not funny Sakura."

She giggled, "Sorry."

"Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno?"

Their heads perked up at the sound of their names being called. Naruto signaled to the waiter they were there as they stood up to follow the waiter inside.

The décor of Eiichir-oda's was semi-fancy, definitely one of the nicer sushi bars to pop up in the Hidden Leaf Village. And just looking at the place, Naruto could already tell that this was not necessarily going to be a cheap night out!

Of course, then he got another look at the woman that was with him right now. 'That's alright; my girl's worth every ryo.'

The waiter escorted them to a two-seated table, one that was set right in front of a fish tank filled with an assortment of exotic fish of many colors. Clown fish, tang, and other whimsical critters that lived in the deep.

"Wow..." Sakura muttered out as she took in the pretty fish.

"Welcome my friends, thank you for choosing Eiichir-oda's," the waiter said. "My name is Satoshi and I will be your server this evening."

"Nice to meet you," Naruto said.

"Sir," Satoshi added, "I realize that this might be unprofessional, but I just have to say that it is a real honor to meet you Uzumaki-san. And you too Haruno-san. To think that I get to serve two of the great heroes of the war, and on New Year's Eve too!"

The couple were blushing in modesty (and a fair bit of embarrassment) at how much of a show their server was making. Scratching the back of his head, Naruto answered for the both of them. "Umm...thanks."

"Yes, thank you," Sakura added just as awkwardly.

"Alright then," Satoshi went on, "How may I get you two started this evening?"

"We'll just start off with a couple of sodas to start off while we look at the menu," Sakura answered.

"Alright then," Satoshi said as he handed each of them their menus. "Here are your menus; you two go ahead and take a look at what you'd like and I'll come back in a few minutes to see if you've decided."

"Thank you Satoshi," Naruto said. But before their server could get too far, the blonde chimed up again. "Oh, and Happy New Year!"

Satoshi smiled and nodded in acknowledgement as he left the couple alone to their own devices.

"Nice guy," Sakura noted, "a bit energetic though."

"Aw he's just excited and loves what he does. I can relate."

"Yeah...he kind of reminds me of you a little bit."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Is that a complement or an insult?"

She leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yep!" he proclaimed with a familiar over-excitedness...Oh the ways young people behave when they're in love.

* * *

A few minutes later, Satoshi came back with their sodas, and then got out a pen and pencil. "Alright folks, are we ready to order?"

"Yes," Naruto said. "We're going to have a round of ika (calamari), a round of ebi (shrimp) and maguro (tuna). And then could you bring us some tekka maki and kappa maki?"

"Very well sir." Satoshi wrote down their order and bowed as he left to give the order to the sushi chef.

Naruto sighed as he stretched his arms a bit. "I guess now we wait."

"I guess so," Sakura said. "So how have your mission's been going?"

"Okay I guess. Kakashi-sensei had me serving as bodyguard to some spoiled prince from a village in the Land of Wind who came here on holiday."

"Ouch. That must have been rough."

"You have _no_ idea! The guy kept insisting that he and I go to a spa to get a tea leaf skin wrap."

"A _what?_ "

Naruto was getting more and more uncomfortable as he kept talking. "I don't want to talk about it."

"No really, tell me."

Naruto sighed, "Fine. Try to imagine your hands soaking in a bubbling milk bath while your feet are soaking in a tub filled with sucker fish that literally eat your calluses away."

" _What?!_ That's _disgusting!_ "

"Then you have you skin scraped with blocks of sea salt and they lube you up with seaweed-infused aloe, wrap you in tea leaves, and then put you in a steaming hot box for four hours."

" _Four hours!_ Dear God! The prince made you go through all of that?!"

"Hell no! I was lucky enough to get myself out of it while the little brat had his four hours of... He made air quotes to emphasize his sarcasm "... _fun_."

"What did you have to do?"

Now poor Naruto was sweating on the back of his neck. "Umm...nothing much."

Sakura narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Naruto."

He sighed again. "Alright...I convinced the prince to let me out of the tea leaf skin wrap if I agreed to send an autographed photo of myself to his sister the princess. Turns out she's a big fan."

Sakura went from suspicious to upset. "Who is the princess exactly?"

Naruto frantically waved his hands in the air to calm her down. "I don't know! I don't know! I swear I never met her! I **swear!** "

Sakura relaxed after a couple of seconds. "Okay, I believe you."

"Y-You do?"

"Yes." She reached out and touched her boyfriend's hand. "Naruto, I love you, and I've known you since we were little kids. I know that you're not the kind of person to do such a thing to anybody you love."

He placed his free hand on top of hers. "Sakura, I would never betray you."

"I know."

He leaned in across the table and claimed her lips in a soft kiss. She accepted, cupping his check for a couple of seconds. When they broke apart, they could only look into each other's eyes and smile...

* * *

After a few more minutes their sushi came and it was delicious. They loved sampling the fresh fish and, when they thought nobody was looking, they would flirt by serving food to one another. Of course, some people did notice but, save for a couple of middle aged prudes, nobody minded because they both looked so cute together.

After they were done with dinner Naruto paid the bill and headed out the door in satisfaction.

Sakura leaned her head on Naruto's shoulder as they walked back towards the Academy, causing Naruto to blush until he got used to it. But as they walked, the passed by a rather interesting sight.

There was a small crowd gathered at a street corner as a local, amateur band was performing outside on New Year's Eve. They were pretty good and some of their spectators were even applauding them in appreciation of their performance. Naruto and Sakura were both lucky enough to catch them just as they were getting ready to perform another song:

 _The power of love is a curious thing_  
 _Make a one man weep, make another man sing_  
 _Change a hawk to a little white dove_  
 _More than a feeling that's the power of love_

 _Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream_  
 _Stronger and harder than a bad girl's dream_  
 _Make a bad one good make a wrong one right_  
 _Power of love that keeps you home at night_

 _You don't need money, don't take fame_  
 _Don't need no credit card to ride this train_  
 _It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes_  
 _But it might just save your life_  
 _That's the power of love_  
 _That's the power of love_

 _First time you feel it, it might make you sad_  
 _Next time you feel it it might make you mad_  
 _But you'll be glad baby when you've found_  
 _That's the power makes the world go'round_

 _And it don't take money, don't take fame_  
 _Don't need no credit card to ride this train_  
 _It's strong and it's sudden it can be cruel sometimes_  
 _But it might just save your life_

 _They say that all in love is fair_  
 _Yeah, but you don't care_  
 _But you know what to do_  
 _When it gets hold of you_  
 _And with a little help from above_  
 _You feel the power of love_  
 _You feel the power of love_

 _Can you feel it?_

 _Hmmm_

 _It don't take money and it don't take fame_  
 _Don't need no credit card to ride this train_  
 _Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel_  
 _You won't feel nothin' till you feel_  
 _You feel the power, just the power of love_  
 _That's the power, that's the power of love_  
 _You feel the power of love_  
 _You feel the power of love_  
 _Feel the power of love_

Naruto took Sakura's hand into his own, causing her to smile as she tightened her grip on him. She leaned her head back on Naruto's shoulder, making him smile even more.

"Great song you guys," Naruto said giving them an enthusiastic thumbs up for their performance. The lead singer thanked them for their hospitality and gave the orange-clad Chūnin his own thumbs up.

"Come on," Sakura said, "we'd better get moving."

Naruto snapped back to attention, realizing that they were wasting time and needed to hurry if they were going to make it to the Academy in time for the big countdown.

But they did not get very far before they heard a voice yelling from the next block. "Hey! Thief! Stop him!"

The voice came for the manager of one of the village banks. A pair of burglars had gotten away with several million ryo and there were not any police or shinobi in the area that could be of any help... _Almost_ none.

The couple looked to one another and each nodded in agreement, then looked back ahead. Naruto cracked his neck while Sakura cracked her knuckles. It was time to get to work.

* * *

"Ha ha! We did it Tetsuo!"

"Damn right Kaneda! I can't believe that went so easy."

"No kidding, that bank manager was a chump!"

The two thieves were hiding out in a dark, dank ally in the entertainment district of Konoha. The crowds were virtually non-existent and there was no one who would want to pursue them into a place like this either way. They were home free.

"Five hundred million ryo. Quite the haul if I do say so myself," Kaneda bragged.

"Funny," Tetsuo said. "You would have thought that Anbu Black Ops or the village police or _any_ shinobi forces would have been around to catch us."

"I already told you Tetsuo, the Sixth Hokage's got the bulk of his forces either on break or working security at the big shindig going down at the Academy tonight."

"Yeah, but still—"

"Hey! You want your cut of this money or do you want to keep bitching about our plan actually working?! Now shut up!"

Tetsuo did not say anything else, merely shook his head as he and his partner continued counting their money. But they were both spooked with they heard the sound of a soda can clanging on the pavement.

"What was that?!" Kaneda yelled as he leaped up with his katana drawn, the same weapon he had used to threaten the bank manager and to rob the bank. Tetsuo drew his own sword as well.

"I don't know," Tetsuo said, "must have been a cat or something."

"No, it was no cat."

They two thieves turned in the direction of the voice, swords drawn. They saw a single individual, a young woman with pink hair and green eyes, with a diamond shaped mark on her forehead.

"Well, well, well." Kaneda said with a perverted whistle. "Now what's a fine woman like you doing in a place like this?"

"I was planning on bringing you boys into the cops for all that money you stole."

The two thieves looked to one another before the both broke out into fits of laughter. Sakura merely stood there smirking.

"Hahaha! That's funny babe!" Tetsuo mocked. "You supposed to be some kind of ninja or something?"

Sakura looked at her nails as if she hadn't a care in the world. "One of the best in the village actually."

"Sure you are," Kaneda said disbelieving, clearly having no clue who the young woman before him really was. He promptly raised his sword up to her face, but she did not flinch. "Look babe, I don't know who you are and I don't care! So unless you want this blade to meet your neck, I suggest you just move along now."

Sakura stood her ground. "Maybe I wasn't clear. You're going to return the money you stole, or suffer the consequences."

"That's some pretty brave and stupid talk coming from you pinkie," Tetsuo mocked. "But is case you hadn't noticed, you don't have any weapons."

Sakura tightened her fist. "Who says I need one?"

"Yeah," Kaneda added, "but there's also two of us and only _one_ of you."

"And what makes you think she's alone?"

It was not Sakura who said that. The thieves turned around looked to the sky to see a shadowy figure standing on the rooftop of the building they were hiding behind. The figure was a male, but neither of the thieves could make out who it was because he was lit from behind by the light of the moon.

"Hey!" Kaneda shouted to the stranger. "Get the hell out of here!"

"Yeah!" Tetsuo said. "Get lost before we gut you and your little girlfriend here!"

"You two really should learn to take a hint," the stranger said as he came into light, revealing himself to be a young man in an orange jacket with blonde hair and blue eyes. "Now we're going to tell you again, either give back what you stole, or we're going to turn you in."

"Oh yeah?" Kaneda asked in a mocking tone. "You and what army?"

The blonde haired stranger smirked as he formed a familiar hand sign. " _This_ army. SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

In numerous puffs of smoke, at least thirty clones of the blonde haired man appeared around the two thieves, cramping the ally obviously, but Sakura and the clones merely smirked at the now terrified looks on the two men's faces.

"Y-Your...Y-Your...Your Naruto Uzumaki aren't you?!" Kaneda stammered out in terror as he dropped his sword.

"Yep!" the real Naruto said as he leaped down from the roof into the alley. "Took you losers long enough to figure that out. And I'm sure you've heard of my girlfriend Sakura Haruno too?"

"Hi," Sakura waved in mock innocence.

"W-What are you going to do with us? Tetsuo asked in terror.

Naruto answered for them. "We're going to be generous and ask you one more time to hand in the money you stole or else we're both going to beat the crap out of you and turn you into the cops."

"I see..." Kaneda said...before he tried picking up his sword and slashing at the real Naruto in fearful fury. The sword swinging was clearly desperate and erratic. Why? Because he was a mere thief trying to get away from the great war hero Naruto Uzumaki himself, _that's_ why!

It didn't matter anyway, Naruto was easily able to catch the sword in his hands and with careful force, and a little help from the Nine Tail's chakra, was able to snap the blade apart, leaving the thief weaponless.

Tetsuo was now terrified. He tried to slash at the girl behind him but Sakura easily dodged the clumsy sword slash and knocked the weapon out of his hand. She then pushed the thief into the brick wall with some chakra-enhanced force, causing the impact to hurt even more than it normally would have.

"Hey! Hey!" Tetsuo begged. "Take it easy on us!"

"We _are_ , trust me!" Sakura retorted.

"Last chance," Naruto stated. "Will you turn in what you stole?"

The two thieves looked to one another for only a moment. Then Kaneda tuned to Naruto and, in an act of bold, utterly incompetent defiance, he spat right in the young ninja's face.

...Naruto was not pleased to say the least. Wiping his face, the blonde let out a sigh as he glanced to his girlfriend. "Well, I guess that's it then?"

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "We _did_ warn them."

With that, the young kunoichi slammed her fist into her palm as she focused her chakra into it, while the young jinchūriki began focusing his own chakra into a glowing blue sphere that formed in the palm of his hand...

* * *

Minutes later, a squad of police and Anbu Black Ops had gathered at the scene of a reported disturbance. When they arrived, what they found were a pair of unconscious and very badly beaten criminals. The Anbu were prepared to make an arrest, until they identified the perpetrators as Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno, the Hokage's former pupils and teammates.

"What is the meaning of this?" the captain demanded.

"There was a robbery at the bank a few blocks from here," Sakura clarified. "These two were the thieves that made off with five hundred million ryo."

The captain eyed the two unconscious victims. "Hmm...we did get a report of the very same robbery and these two do bear a resemblance to the suspects. Do you have any evidence?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, "here's the money." He grabbed their giant sack of ryo and put it at the captain's feet.

"Well, that's all the proof I need. Cuff them!"

The shinobi police force slapped some handcuffs on the robbers and carried them off so that when they awoke they would be in their cells back at the station.

"Take these two in for booking captain," Naruto ordered as if he were the Hokage himself. "Charge them with armed robbery, and tell the Hokage that the stolen money has been taken into police possession."

"Yes sir!" the captain said. Amusingly, he actually saluted Naruto for what he and Sakura had done that night.

Walking back to his girlfriend while the police and Anbu dealt with the robbers, Naruto smirked. "Well..."

Sakura finished the sentence for him. "That was unexpected."

"Yeah. It was kind of fun though."

Sakura smirked, "Yeah, it kind of was." But then something occurred to Sakura, "Naruto, what time is it?"

Naruto checked the time, "Crap! Its five minutes to midnight!"

"Naruto! The crowds going to be huge by now! There's no way we'll be able to make our way through the crowd now without making a public ruckus!"

He thought about it for several seconds...Then a light bulb went off in his mind. He turned to her and said, "I've got a better idea..."

* * *

Within minutes, the two of them were standing alone atop the Hokage Rock, specifically on top of the head of Minato Namikaze himself. The two of them were alone, with nothing else to disturb them from the sight of the village's gorgeous nighttime lights and the chill of the winter breeze.

"Do you remember the last time we were here?" he asked her.

"Yes, this is where you and I confessed our love a few months ago."

Naruto smiled warmly, "That was the best night of my life."

Sakura smiled back, "Mine too."

He took her hand as he looked out to the village below. "I thought that this way we could be alone and have a great view of the village when the fireworks went off."

"Its perfect," she said.

Naruto checked the time. "Oh, looks like the final countdown is coming." He looked to her. "Y'know, I did have one resolution that I promised myself before the night was over."

"Really? What's that?"

"That I would kick off the new year by kissing my girlfriend at the stroke of midnight."

Sakura smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her waist. "You are such a dork."

Naruto kept smiling as he leaned his head in. "Ten."

Sakura leaned her head in as well. "Nine."

"Eight."

"Seven."

"Six."

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

And thus the two lovers came together in an intense, romantic kiss, just as the clock struck midnight and the new year had arrived. The village below was clamoring with celebration as the fireworks went off, lighting the sky ablaze with rainbows of sparks and explosion.

But neither Naruto nor Sakura paid any attention to it, they were too consumed with their own love for one another.

After a kiss that lasted a solid thirty seconds, maybe longer, the two finally parted lips and looked into each other's eyes.

"Happy New Year Sakura."

"Happy New Year Naruto."

They did not even need to say those three little words to each other, their eyes did all the talking for them. And so they closed the distance again, coming together for another kiss as the world celebrated around them.

For them however, being together like this was all the celebration they needed.

* * *

So, what did you think? I personally don't know if it represents some of my best work, but I think for what it is it works okay.

There were a couple of references in here that I'll go ahead and point out. First off, the song in this story was "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News. The song is from one of my absolute favorite movies of all time, "Back to the Future." I not only thought it was a great love song, but it also seemed appropriate since we are closing out 2015, the year that Marty and Doc traveled to in "Back to the Future Part II." Yes, like many fans I am disappointed that the real 2015 is so different (and, frankly, a lot worse off) than the one seen in the movie, but as Doc Brown said, that just means that the future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. The future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!

The sushi restaurant they went to was named Eiichir-oda's, which is an obvious reference to Eiichiro Oda, creator of "One Piece."

I actually decided to send them to a sushi place this time because I have had them eat a lot of food in my stories and I decided, for once, to try doing something that felt specifically Japanese.

The disgusting story Naruto tells of the prince that he was orders to bodyguard that wanted him to join him for a tea leaf skin wrap was based on an episode of "The Legend of Korra." In the season four premiere "After All These Years," we learn that Mako has been stuck as bodyguard for the spoiled and obnoxious Prince Wu, the next King of the Earth Kingdom. Wu tells Mako that he is going to get a tea leaf skin wrap as they leave the hotel and Mako finds it just as disgusting. I don't know why, but the idea of Naruto being stuck having to babysit a spoiled prince as irritating and Wu seemed like a hilarious concept to me.

The characters having to deal with the robbers by themselves was, very slightly, inspired by the opening of Tim Burton's "Batman," where the Dark Knight makes his big entrance by stopping a couple of muggers on a dark rooftop.

There were a couple of character names that were inspired by other anime characters as well. Satoshi is a pretty common Japanese name, but I had Ash Ketchem's original Japanese name on my mind when I wrote it. Kaneda and Tetsuo were, of course, the main protagonist and antagonist of the anime classic "Akira," and they were both part of a biker gang so it made enough sense to use their names for a couple of bank robbers.

Oh, and the reason why they rob a bank with swords is because they needed some kind of weapon to pull off this job and, as we all know, there are no guns in the Naruto universe.

I think that's all I've got for this time. I hope you enjoyed the story, and until next time, see ya!

Oh, and one more thing...HAPPY NEW YEAR!


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